The present invention relates generally to devices for assisting the growth of a plant, particularly to devices for both protecting plants from certain weather and environmental conditions and for providing physical support to the plant.
Young and delicate plants are customarily set outdoors directly from seed flats early in the growing season. For example, plants such as tomato plants are often set out in the spring without the benefit of weather protection. This results in the loss of many young plants due to weather conditions.
In the past to reduce plant loss due to weather conditions, various protective covers or "hot caps" have been used. The devices may be translucent and are generally entirely closed to the atmosphere or have been provided with an aperture communicating with the atmosphere. Neither of these conditions is desirable at all times, however, for it is sometimes necessary to completely enclose the plant part of the time, such as at night or during stormy weather, while it is unnecessary and a disadvantage to give more than partial protection during the daytime or during good weather. Heretofore, the construction of such hot caps or the method of anchoring them to the soil has made it impractical to adjust the degree of protection provided.
As a tomato plant matures, it begins sprouting branches or vines which eventually bear the tomatoes themselves. As tomatoes appear on the vine, the combined weight of the tomatoes and vines causes the plant to bend, possibly breaking, and eventually the vines and tomatoes rest on the ground. Tomatoes contacting the soil rapidly decay and are more subject to attack by insects and small animals. In addition, if the plant vines and tomatoes are not supported above the soil, it is extremely difficult to till the soil surrounding the plant. Also, harvesting the tomatoes is much more labor intensive when plant support is not provided. Thus lack of provision for support of the plant results in less yield of usable produce due to bending and breaking of the plant and also due to some of the produce contacting the soil and decaying
In the past, support for tomato plants has sometimes been provided by "staking" the plants. This involves driving a long wooden stake into the ground adjacent to the plant. The stalk of the tomato plant is then tied to the stake. A disadvantage of this approach is that the initial staking is labor intensive and repeated tieing of the plant is required as the plant matures.
Other previous plant supporting devices have utilize wire like constructions for the support of the plant. The small diameter of the supporting wire members fails to continuously support the upper growth portion of the plant and subjects the plant to high pressure at the point of contact of the plant with the wire support member. This type of support can result in plant damage, plant breakage, and lower yield of tomatoes.
Thus, prior to the present invention, separate non-cooperating devices were used to provide protection from weather to young plants and to provide support to mature plants. This requires additional expense in the purchasing of separate devices, additional storage when the separate devices are not in use, and additional total labor in the placing, collecting and storing of weather protecting devices followed by the labor for placing plant supporting devices.
Thus, a need has arisen for a single device which both assists the growth of a plant by providing protection from the weather for the young plant and provides continuous support to the more mature plant.